COLD DAY IN HELL

The trail of three murdered beauties leads the authorities to a late-night comedian.

With the preliminary evidence in, the cops cuff the popular host of Marshall Fox at Midnight, read him his rights and hand him over to the New York State prosecutors, who enjoy Marshall Fox’s dilemma as much as most of titillated America soon grows to enjoy it. Even Marshall himself, whose ego is well-nourished, doesn’t seem to mind it all that much, though as the case progresses, it increasingly takes on the aspects of a prosecutorial slam-dunk. Knight-errant p.i. Fritz Malone gets involved when a damsel in considerable distress appeals to his susceptible nature—a susceptibility of which his steady girlfriend Margo takes an exceedingly dim view. But Fritz, the son of a legendary police officer, didn’t become a stalker of bad guys by happenstance. It’s in his bones, and when at length he concludes that the real killer has outfoxed the cops, nothing can keep him from the hunt. Margo, who understands this about Fritz, tells him bitterly, “Just don’t come home dead.” But he almost does.

A little too talky for optimal pacing, but still a strong sequel to Fritz’s impressive debut, Speak of the Devil (2006).